Wednesday, June 14, 2017

A warm day, a strange day, a lovely day, a sick day, a happy day, a windy day -- oh, I can heap on the adjectives and still not touch the unusual way the hours unfolded.

An early morning phone call from my daughter is never a good thing and indeed, I learn that Snowdrop is under the weather and we need to reconfigure child care for the day.

This calls for my looking after the little girl in her own home, though I have two very important things to do first:

Breakfast... (Ed, please don't touch the fruit until I take my photo!)

And secondly, a coffee with my good friend who is in Madison just for a handful of days. There she is, amidst the men and portraits of men at this new to me "hipster" coffee shop (Johnson Public House)...

By the time I am at Snowdrop's place, the little girl has turned the corner and is feeling much better.Want to come upstairs and play with me, Gaga?

So much so, that she is very happy to be offered a time on the swings in the next-door park (to no ill effect!)...

And very happy to be munching on croissant, cheese and fruits...

And very happy when I agree to take her then to the farmhouse (she brings her "home baby" for a visit with the "farmhouse baby" and the "little baby" and then promptly takes them all grocery shopping).

A sure sign that she is feeling closer to her old self again.

Want to draw with me, ahah? Want to sit down and draw with us, Gaga?

As for pictures of the garden -- I could give you a feel for the storm that roared through here just as Snowdrop napped by photographing the trees that bent heavily with the winds, but I was too busy holding my breath, hoping that nothing major would be uprooted.

We survived with only a handful of downed branches.

And as Ed and I walk the land to take stock, I notice that the steamy, sticky air has come right back, despite the storms. No reprieve yet -- just another set of warm and humid hours, making me feel oh so grateful for the pleasant coolness of the old farmhouse.

Evening. We have just a little time before pick up.You want some asparagus and egg? -- I ask the little one. She'd been wistful last night as she watched me begin work on supper and I promised to save her some. (Egg to her means cooked egg whites -- something that she stole from my salad plate back in Paris. Since then she has proclaimed -- I love eggs!)Yes!
A girl after Gaga's heart...

Ed is getting ready for his Wednesday night bike ride and she insists on going out to watch him work with the bike. This is the only time when Snowdrop appears small to me -- when she is next to his towering, lumbering frame.

He's gone, her parents aren't here yet. Time to distract her: want to pick strawberries?
Does she ever! There aren't many, but enough!
She eats them joyfully on the porch, where the cheepers can only peer in with envy.

When Snowdrop leaves, the farmette grows quiet.

Time to do nothing.

No, that's not possible. Time to dig out the photos from the day and see if anything might be useful for an Ocean post.